Bergrin helped run call-girl ring, woman testifies at trial

A Montreal woman once billed as New York’s top escort testified in federal court in Newark on Thursday that Paul W. Bergrin stepped in to run a Manhattan call-girl ring after her boss was busted by the authorities.

Natalie McLennan, 33, told jurors that during the time she worked for NY Confidential she commanded up to $2,000-an-hour for her companionship, whether she had sex with a customer or not.

Bergrin was one of the lawyers retained by her boyfriend, Jason Itzler, a self-proclaimed “king of all pimps” who wanted to turn his upscale brothel into a national enterprise, she said. Itzler grew up in Cliffside Park and attended the Dwight-Englewood School in Englewood and Tenafly High School.

McLennan said Itzler, who had been convicted on drug charges in New Jersey, became upset when parole officers imposed a curfew that hampered his ability to run his prostitution business out of a loft in TriBeCa.

Bergrin, however, managed to solve the problem by claiming that Itzler was working for him as a paralegal in New York and needed to be out late at night, she said.

Asked how she knew Itzler wasn’t doing any legal work for Bergrin, McLennan said, “Because Jason was at the loft every night running the business.”

When reality show producers approached Itzler about filming his operation, McLennan said Bergrin was adamant about not doing the show because it could kill the prostitution business. They also discussed plans to expand into a “national agency” with branches in many cities, she said.

McLennan was in Las Vegas with a client when New York authorities raided the loft in 2005, she said.

Bergrin later called her to his Newark office and “told me the agency had to keep running,” she said. “Jason needed money for his defense and he told me he wanted me to run the business.” She added that she declined.

Bergrin, who is representing himself, tried to distance himself from the operations of the brothel as he cross examined McLennan.

“I wouldn’t say you didn’t have any managerial or supervisory role,” McLennan countered. “You were constantly talking about the business with him.”

Bergrin got McLennan to agree that she was a daily cocaine user and was addicted to heroin for six months, and he had nothing to do with drugs.

McLennan was arrested in 2005 and charged with promoting prostitution and money laundering. She said she pleaded guilty to reduced charges, cooperated with authorities in New York and was sentenced to time served, 26 days.

Bergrin was arrested in 2007 and indicted in New York on charges of money laundering, conspiracy, promoting prostitution and misconduct by an attorney. He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor prostitution charges.

In the current trial, Bergrin, 57, of Nutley, is accused of using his law practice as a racketeering enterprise to engage in cocaine trafficking, prostitution, witness tampering, attempted murder and the murder of an FBI informant. His first trial on two murder counts related to the informant's slaying ended in a hung jury in 2011.

Asked by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Minish why she was testifying now, McLennan said: “It’s an opportunity for me to do the right thing. I’m living my life in a different way now.”

Minish concluded by questioning McLennan about a photograph of a painting that she included in her 2008 memoir, “The Price: My Rise and Fall As Natalia, New York’s #1 Escort.”

The prosecutor wanted to know why Bergrin was one of the 10 people featured in the painting.

“All the people in that painting were the main faces of New York Confidential,” she said.